Chapter 13

The Buyan Palace was quiet again, finally, after all the celebrations for the return of the Princess and the recovery of the King. The two of them had stood hand and hand for hours, before the relieved crowd, until the King had proclaimed he wanted some private time with his daughter and chased us all outside.

Alladin had disappeared as soon as we had left the caverns, probably to learn more spells. He had been terribly impressed by his new friend Blaster and awestruck by my wife's capabilities. I hoped he wouldn't forget his cooking... the boy had talent, just ask the Hermit, who had shown up briefly at the celebration (wearing a robe!).

M'hul was organizing a search for Morgan. Unfortunately, no one really knew him. He seemed to come from nowhere and disappeared back there. M'hul wasn't likely to give up, though. I think he was a little taken with the Princess' strength of character, shown by surviving her captivity. He will catch Morgan, eventually, I'd bet. And bring Lasahn his head, no doubt!

The entire Kingdom hailed the Princess for her courage. I was happy to see she took the praise in stride. Perhaps her ordeal would help raise her popularity.

Pteri and I found a quiet corner of the Palace's grounds for a picnic. I stretched out in my peasant robes, back propped up against a tree and pretended I was back in my grove. Pteri lay with her head on my lap, watching the clouds.

"You know, I really could go for some of those sausages from Walsuk's tavern," I said, chuckling.

"Even Lasahn won't eat those, "Pteri said, closing her eyes, "And she had nothing to eat for two weeks but rat!"

"Lucky for her, too," I replied, "If she hadn't been eating rats, we never would have found a way to get her out of that cell."

"I still say it was risky," Pteri commented, "Using that spell to GIVE a rat the key and releasing it, hoping it would wander into her cell. How did you know it would even go there?"

"I didn't," I smiled, then turned to rummage through my pack. I MUST have a pen and a scrap of paper somewhere! "It was a gamble, but if she kept killing every rat that wandered into her cell, she would have to get the key sooner or later! We were just lucky it was sooner."

Ah! I found some paper.

"Besides, the wait just gave me an opportunity to finish my poem."

"One thing still puzzles me," she said, "When we learned that Morgan was behind all this, you weren't even surprised. Why not?"

"Well, I had suspected him ever since the Smith told me that he had been ordered to make Morgan a copy of the Princess' armor. What would a secretary be doing with such regal armor, unless he had plans to become MORE than a secretary?"

"Just read the poem," she said.

"If you insist..."